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There was something that seriously annoyed me about yesterday’s instrument graph. The use of the Multiply() and the Sum() is bothersome; I’m used to expressing this functionality in a more concise manner using the * and + operators. Download today’s code here.

The last two lines of the class redefine __add__() and __mul__(), which control the behaviors of + and *. These functions use the custom classes Add() and Mul(). These were originally called Sum() and Multiply(), though I renamed them to follow Python naming conventions. The last thing I had to do was alter some of the existing classes to derive from class UnitGenerator, so they automatically incorporate the overloaded operators.

To make sense of this, I’m going to compare this Python iterator class to Csound. More or less, Csound works at three rates: init (i), control (k) and audio (a). All three of these are represented in class RiseFall. The i-rate of RiseFall is __init__(), the k-rate is __iter__() and the a-rate is next().

What makes RiseFall a k-rate unit generator is that the code that calculates the current value of the envelope resides in __iter__(), which gets executed at the beginning of each new frame of audio. If you look at class Sine, you’ll see that the code responsible for generating the sine wave is in the class method next().

Mixer is an iterator class that takes two iterator objects as its input. The values yielded by the inputs are summed together. Yesterday’s method was only good for one frame; A Mixer object does not have this restriction.

The Run iterator class is designed to loop through the iterator/audio graph over a user-defined duration of time, creating multiple frames of audio data.

The follow snippet of code resembles yesterday’s example as it creates a graph of two sine waves (a1 & a2) being fed into a mixer (amix.) The Run object is given a duration of 1 second, which produces 4410 frames (sr / ksmps) and 44100 samples (10 samples per frame.)

BTW, I’m trying a new service, textsnip.com, for storing and sharing my scripts online. If you have a better recommendation, let me know. Update: textsnip seems to add a couple of gremlins to the autodocs, so I’m trying out snipt.org as well.

I wrote a sine oscillator as a Python iterator class. Not the fastest digital oscillator in the world. Though for now, doing prototype work in pure Python will do just fine, even if it means slow render times. In the long run, Slipmat will require a powerhouse of an engine for real-time audio synthesis and DSP, probably written in C. All in good time.

Near the bottom of the code is a very simple graph, where two sine wave generators (a1 & a2) are patched into a mixer generator (amix), creating a very rudimentary additive synthesizer. The signals aren’t generated until the for-block at the very end. The script only prints one control-block’s worth of data, 10 samples, which coincides with the value of ksmps found in class Sine. The sample rate and control rate is built right into class Sine, and needs to be moved out.

Csound is the most powerful computer music language in the world, with a direct lineage to Max Mathews’ original Music-N languages. The focus of this class will be a synthesis of three topics: The Csound language, synthesizer theory, and composing weird alien music.

Together, we will demystify the assembly-like syntax of the Csound language. We will cover the fundamentals of synthesizer theory, including: oscillators, filters, envelopes, amplifiers and modulation. Finally, we’ll tie it all together by composing sounds in the vein of classic Sci-Fi movies.